The Legend of Fangren

Chapter 153 Big Big Big Sister

The disciples' rooms are located on the upper floors of the Li Huo Hall, but not in the main building. Instead, they are small buildings on the adjacent mountainside, specifically for those who stay here for an extended period.

Following the plank road, you can reach the fourth floor of the Fire Palace. Every day, it is bustling with activity, with constant clanging sounds and occasional deep, heavy forging sounds. These are usually the sounds of highly skilled weapon refiners forging high-grade metals.

Fang Shi had already inquired with Lao Gang a few days ago about the "work spots". Putting aside everything else, there was never a shortage of work to do heavy lifting in Li Huo Palace. As long as you were strong and willing to do heavy work, you could earn a living here.

"Hey, young man, looking for work. You've got some strength, huh? Alright, see those carriages coming up the plank road over there? Those are our newly arrived shipments, all sorts of scrapped magical artifacts. Go unload them and load them onto our trucks. Come back and get your money when you're done, cash on delivery."

"Okay." Fang Shi had worked part-time when he was in school in his previous life, and he liked this kind of quick and easy work where he got paid immediately after finishing his job.

He rode quickly to the fire platform, took the short-term worker's token given to him by the manager, and began to move the goods.

An old man nearby saw him reach out to grab it and quickly reminded him, "Young man, be careful. Don't be fooled by this cloth wrapping. There are knives and swords inside, very sharp. If you're not careful, you'll get cut and lose a piece of flesh, and you'll feel the pain."

"Oh, thank you, Uncle."

Fang Shi immediately withdrew his hand, took out two pieces of leather and wrapped them in his own hands, then carried a large hemp cloth bag off the carriage. The discarded knives and guns inside clattered together, and he tore it open and dumped them all onto the cart.

Fang Shi took a look and saw that the blades of these discarded knives and spears were all chipped, some even had bent handles, most had dried bloodstains, and they were all of the same design.

Seeing him staring at the weapons, the old man urged him on, muttering to himself, "Look at these knives and spears. Look at this sword, it's obviously been trampled by animal hooves. It seems there are even more animal problems this year. Sigh—I don't know if the villagers will be able to make a living. I'm afraid they'll have to flee again, just like before."

Fang Shi remained silent for a moment before asking, "Uncle, are these scrapped swords and spears recycled and melted down to create new mystical weapons?"

The old man shook his head: "How could that be? Every time a metal material is refined and then melted down, its grade will drop. These knives and spears are all first and second-grade standard Xuan weapons. They were originally made by mixing together some recycled Xuan weapons. Now that they have been brought back and melted down, they have become ordinary molten iron. They can only be used to make some farm tools and woodcutting knives. They can't be sold for much money. Or, you can bury this molten iron underground and use it to pour the foundation of buildings. That would be somewhat useful."

This is the difference between the matter in the mystical realm and that of the previous life.

Fang Shi's eyes lit up again, knowing this was an opportunity for the square-shaped people to make a profit.

Without a word, he diligently unloaded the entire truckload of goods, returned to the foreman who assigned the work, handed over his token, and received his payment. Weighing the money in his hand, he asked the foreman again, "Can those scrapped knives and guns be sold?"

"Of course we can! It's a pile of junk, hard to move, and there's no profit in it. We'd love for someone to buy it. It's just a pity that no merchants who do business with ordinary people have come yet. They're the ones who have offered the highest price for this pile of stuff."

After all, for cultivators, selling a bunch of miscellaneous items to various places is too troublesome. When you average out the time and effort spent, it's no wonder they can't make any money.

But it's different for merchants and caravans who travel throughout the Five Realms all year round. They can bring these things along without increasing their existing travel costs much, and still make enough profit.

Fang Shi immediately made the decision, saying, "In that case, how about I buy it?"

"You?" The foreman glanced down at the money he had just given the boy and chuckled, "Kid, you can buy it, but the money for just moving this truckload of scrap metal isn't enough. Otherwise, what would we need people to move?"

"Of course, no problem." Fang Shi looked back and saw that many more carriages had arrived at the fire platform. It looked like a large merchant caravan. Weren't these all opportunities to make money?

The manager chuckled upon seeing this: "I've been guarding this rooftop for so many years, and this is the first time I've seen someone like you making money on the spot. Alright, you go and unload all the goods for that new caravan, and I'll sell you that cartload of scrap knives and guns."

"Okay!"

Fang Shi grabbed the token and dashed to the front of the caravan. His uncle, who had been working with him, was about to come over for a chat when he saw him again, but the boy was focused on his work. He rushed to the driver, flicked the token, and opened the side door of the carriage, starting to unload the goods with a loud clatter.

Lady Che was dumbfounded. When she heard the commotion after dismounting, she thought she had been robbed. She thought to herself that she had come all the way to Li Huo Palace, and it was too outrageous that someone would rob her. Then she realized that they were workers. So she watched as Fang Shi, who seemed to have superhuman strength, unloaded basket after basket of goods, marveling at the sight.

Just then, a voice came from the carriage at the very front of the caravan, asking the coachman, "Old coachman, I heard things falling out of the back. Did one of the carriages get startled and overturn?"

"Oh! Miss, you misheard. There's a young man who works very efficiently; he started unloading the goods as soon as he arrived."

The problem is, can unloading make any noise like dumping goods? The carriage is carrying goods acquired along the way, and the part collected by Li Huo Palace is mostly heavy metal objects. At this rate of dumping, it might bury people, let alone unload them.

The young lady the driver was talking about curiously leaned out of the carriage window.

"Um?"

This immediately drew Fang Shi's attention.

The carriages at the back of the procession were rather simple, but the one at the front was lavishly decorated, clearly the kind only a wealthy family could afford.

But what truly attracted Fang Shizi was the golden hue that stood out starkly against the surroundings under the bright sunlight.

Golden hair? Such a rare hair color. This is the first time Fang Shi has seen such a "foreigner" appearance since arriving in the ancient and elegant Xuan Realm.

Beneath that long, golden hair was a girl's face that still retained a touch of childishness; her delicate and beautiful features and skin were enough to captivate the soul.

As luck would have it, the two of them made eye contact while in and out of the car—could this be the legendary chance encounter?

You're overthinking it. Fang Shi doesn't care about his appearance at all when he's working. After a while, his body and face are covered in dust. You could believe he's crawled out of the ashes after some mishap.

On the contrary, the blonde merchant's daughter, seeing that Fang Shi was young and possessed such strength, took pity on his situation and asked him, "Young man, how old are you?"

Fang Shi's heart skipped a beat. He thought to himself, "Girl, you have such a delicate face, how dare you call me 'little brother'? My face is covered in the grime and dirt of life, you know. I should be calling you 'little sister' instead."

When the young lady saw that he didn't speak, she assumed he was illiterate and his speech was awkward. So she smiled and said, "My caravan is about to stay here for a few days. If you're willing to work, you can help out for a few days. If you do a good job, I'll take you in as a member of the caravan, and you can make money with us from now on, how about that?"

As she spoke, the young lady stood up, preparing to get out of the carriage and enter the Li Huo Hall to discuss business. Out of curiosity, Fang Shi looked ahead and happened to see her bending down and crawling out of the carriage curtain.

Then, his innocent eyes widened to the point of being completely oblivious, and the young child's heart suffered a tremendous shock. Okay—sister, big sister, great big sister, I admit that it was my narrow-mindedness to say that you were small just now.